The curator, Stephanie D’Alessandro and the art historian, Marci Kwon linked Cornell’s naming of the boxes, as well as Cornell’s use of shadow, black lines, bits of a paper reproductions of the Gris’s painting and newspaper collage as a direct inspiration. These “jewel box exhibitions” called dossier exhibitions are a new kind of small, intimate show, the Metropolitan Museum will be launching in the coming years.

“You don’t get to play with the balls, cords, rings, etc. in a Joseph Cornell box. In my work you explore, probe, sit, read, and poke around. It drives Museum curators crazy.” Mark Dion in his opening remarks on Sunday.

Mark Dion, close-up of some of the boxes in the shed

Dion’s work, “Memory Box” pictured above, is based on the tar paper sheds people have in their backyards filled with broken garden pots, disused shovels, busted barbecues, and forgotten bits and pieces. Visitors are invited to enter, open the boxes, which Dion has collected from all over the world, and explore… the boxes hold photographs, prints, clay pipes, artifacts, watch parts, even one filled with 6 months of Dion’s junk mail.

Photograph of some of Cornell’s collections of misc materials used in his boxes. from his studio/basement in his home – Utopia Parkway Queens, NY

Dion told an interesting story about the origins of the Amateur Ornithologists Club in Germany. He was in Germany, looking for a site for a new work on bitter cold day; in the distance he saw an odd looking structure with smoke coming out of the chimney. He entered and found that this place (it was 9 am) was the a hang out for fisherman. Inside the walls were a deep amber-color from years of smoking. And early in the morning the club members were guys were downing schnapps. Dion decided if there could be a fisherman’s club, there could also be an ornithologists club. He used a former gas tank to create the observatory station.

Mark Dion, inside of the birding club

This club has optics, watercolors, books and a “bar” which features bottles of liquor whose brand name must contain the name of a bird.

Mark Dion, Folkestone, UK, The Mobile Gull Appreciation Unit

According to Dion, at one time, Folkestone in the UK was a prosperous and desired town. Today, almost everyone in the town hates the seagulls – the Mediterranean Gull, found in larger numbers here than in any other part of the UK. People in the town have reported patients in the Furness General Hospital being kept awake by the gulls, a man reported a gull stole his sandwich while sitting on a park bench, as well as many people reporting gulls attacking them on different parts of their body. In response Dion created The Mobile Gull Appreciation Unit. “The mobile unit functions as a clearing house for information about the evolution, ethnology, natural history, environmental status and folklore of gulls.” DionWhy are birds so important to Dion? Birds tell us about habitat disruption, history, geography, chemistry, literature, biology, ecology, environmental damage. Birds are the key to our world,